HRC have released another video, this time for their Performing Arts course, featuring footage of me directing students during a rehearsal of The Cherry Orchard:
I should probably point out that I have never taught any of the interviewees, and so any and all of the lovely things said about their tutors do not necessarily apply to me.
Showing posts with label Directing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Directing. Show all posts
Friday, 9 May 2014
Monday, 5 November 2012
Media
I'm in a video that has recently surfaced as an advert for the media course at the college I taught at.
Crucially, I didn't didn't teach media, but the video features footage of the actors and dancers as well. I can be seen silently directing the cast of The Cherry Orchard with bigger gestures than I remember, while some of the cast of the The Undiscovered shot a scene which would be played into their show.
Crucially, I didn't didn't teach media, but the video features footage of the actors and dancers as well. I can be seen silently directing the cast of The Cherry Orchard with bigger gestures than I remember, while some of the cast of the The Undiscovered shot a scene which would be played into their show.
Friday, 22 June 2012
The Cherry Orchard & The Undiscovered Feedback
I've been reading and marking various evaluations of the two shows, which I won't trouble you with, but it's nice to get a bit of feedback.
Siobhan Dunne, the Deputy Head Of HRC's Creative Arts and Industries Department wrote this about The Cherry Orchard:
"This week has been a hot and hectic start to the CAI-Brox End of Year Shows. On Tuesday we saw an engrossing production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard under the thoughtful guidance of our guest Theatre Director David Williams. A lyrical adaptation of this Russian Classic which made exacting demands on our Year 1 level 3 Performing Arts student actors. This 1904 play tackled the difficult issues of living in a time of transformation and the inevitability of change."
and then this about The Undiscovered:
"Last week the year 2 drama also performed their devised show which conjured up ghosts in theatre and a battle between the living and the dead over the "Scottish Play". Thanks to David Williams our guest director for all his hard work this term – we hope to be able to invite him back again."
Which was nice.
Siobhan Dunne, the Deputy Head Of HRC's Creative Arts and Industries Department wrote this about The Cherry Orchard:
"This week has been a hot and hectic start to the CAI-Brox End of Year Shows. On Tuesday we saw an engrossing production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard under the thoughtful guidance of our guest Theatre Director David Williams. A lyrical adaptation of this Russian Classic which made exacting demands on our Year 1 level 3 Performing Arts student actors. This 1904 play tackled the difficult issues of living in a time of transformation and the inevitability of change."
and then this about The Undiscovered:
"Last week the year 2 drama also performed their devised show which conjured up ghosts in theatre and a battle between the living and the dead over the "Scottish Play". Thanks to David Williams our guest director for all his hard work this term – we hope to be able to invite him back again."
Which was nice.
Friday, 15 June 2012
The Undiscovered Yesterday
The last two performances of The Undiscovered were yesterday. I was reluctant to reveal the content of the show in my first post about it, but now the show has taken place I can go into a bit more detail.
The cast initially came up with two ideas: the first concerned a group of actors locked in a haunted theatre, while the second was a murder mystery. The two ideas became entwined. Over the first month of rehearsals, the cast divided themselves into actors and ghosts. I won't give away whodunnit, but three of the actors shuffle off this mortal coil over the course of the play and become ghosts.
The devising process took its toll on the cast and there was a distinct lack of confidence in their material when they performed a version of the show-so-far for a hand picked audience in the fifth week of rehearsals. Some used this opportunity to realise the elements they needed to complete the play and some made excuses. Rehearsal attendance has suffered and those who have been more committed have done a good job. The cast were also been assigned production roles for various off stage elements. I was hoping this would make some of them realise how much work still needed to be done. It didn't really work.
The fifth week saw us hotseating the characters that the cast had come up with. Easily my favourite question asked was "How old are you, and why?"
The sixth week was spent running the scenes we had and identifying what was missing. The group scenes were tough going sometimes, but they started to come together.
I spent much of week seven with the first years working on The Cherry Orchard and it seemed as though the cast had spent most of the time arguing, but when I rejoined the second years they had changed several scenes. They also added performances of the songs 'Well, Did You Evah' and 'It's Oh So Quiet'. We had a run of the show and I gave some notes. The eighth week was once-again shortened by bank holidays, but thankfully many of the cast came in to rehearse in their own time.
This is week nine: performance week. For reasons too dull to go into the second year show had three performances and two of those were matinees. After a run-through which was intended to be the dress rehearsal, the cast impressed me by deciding to undertake another before the first performance.
Wednesday's matinee turned out to be a raucous event. The addition of an audience saw the cast play the comedy scenes far more broadly and the students laughed so loudly that it began to affect other scenes. In particular, one of the three death scenes took on comedic connotations that previously weren't there and this disappointed many of the cast. The Thursday matinee and evening shows were a little more sedate and felt very different as a result.
The end result is that the second year class has finished their course with a quirky, energetic and entertaining theatre piece of their own creation.
The cast initially came up with two ideas: the first concerned a group of actors locked in a haunted theatre, while the second was a murder mystery. The two ideas became entwined. Over the first month of rehearsals, the cast divided themselves into actors and ghosts. I won't give away whodunnit, but three of the actors shuffle off this mortal coil over the course of the play and become ghosts.
The devising process took its toll on the cast and there was a distinct lack of confidence in their material when they performed a version of the show-so-far for a hand picked audience in the fifth week of rehearsals. Some used this opportunity to realise the elements they needed to complete the play and some made excuses. Rehearsal attendance has suffered and those who have been more committed have done a good job. The cast were also been assigned production roles for various off stage elements. I was hoping this would make some of them realise how much work still needed to be done. It didn't really work.
The sixth week was spent running the scenes we had and identifying what was missing. The group scenes were tough going sometimes, but they started to come together.
I spent much of week seven with the first years working on The Cherry Orchard and it seemed as though the cast had spent most of the time arguing, but when I rejoined the second years they had changed several scenes. They also added performances of the songs 'Well, Did You Evah' and 'It's Oh So Quiet'. We had a run of the show and I gave some notes. The eighth week was once-again shortened by bank holidays, but thankfully many of the cast came in to rehearse in their own time.
This is week nine: performance week. For reasons too dull to go into the second year show had three performances and two of those were matinees. After a run-through which was intended to be the dress rehearsal, the cast impressed me by deciding to undertake another before the first performance.
Wednesday's matinee turned out to be a raucous event. The addition of an audience saw the cast play the comedy scenes far more broadly and the students laughed so loudly that it began to affect other scenes. In particular, one of the three death scenes took on comedic connotations that previously weren't there and this disappointed many of the cast. The Thursday matinee and evening shows were a little more sedate and felt very different as a result.
The end result is that the second year class has finished their course with a quirky, energetic and entertaining theatre piece of their own creation.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
The Cherry Orchard Yesterday
The performances of The Cherry Orchard were yesterday.
We spent the fourth week hotseating characters, which proved a very fruitful exercise and proved to me that there was a good level of understanding among the cast. We then ran the whole play, followed by the first half again. Costumes were coming together and I had various meetings about lighting, music and sound.
Our fifth week was spent running the play in two halves and then in full on the Friday. Lines were still not being learnt and blocking was being forgotten.
Week six saw a crisis of confidence among the cast and so we slowed down. Working our way through the play at a pace more akin to week three. There was some really nice insight from the cast and stronger characters were definitely developing. There were still lines unlearned and if this continued there would be some harsh lessons learned as well.
This is week seven: our performance week. We had our get-in and technical rehearsal on Monday and we were supposed to have our dress rehearsal, but the cast were not ready. Many were not off-book and very few seemed bothered that the show was tomorrow. A stern talking-to was in order and the effect was obvious on the second run of the day. Things were heading in the right direction, but I was worried it would be too little, too late. I delayed the dress rehearsal from the previous Friday, to Monday and then again to the day of the show, which was hardly ideal. The dress rehearsal was a qualified shambles. Many of the scenes were fine but the transitions between them were appalling, cast members wandered off missing whole scenes and I was forced to prompt several times.
I was very anxious as the matinee performance began. Things went wrong, but the cast carried on and crucially carried on in character. They helped each other through and they adapted to the constantly-changing circumstances. The lines jumped around Act One and I was leafing through my script to try to find where they were in case I needed to prompt again. I would find a line that had just been delivered and then the next would jump back or forward two or three pages. Acts Two and Three were more straight-forward. Act Four had its line jumps, but they all went in the same direction and merely got us to the end a little quicker. I was required to prompt twice, which was unfortunate, but obviously a vast improvement over the last few runs. Having an audience forced the cast to commit to decisions, some we had discussed and some that we hadn't. The character moments that were created during the performance were fantastic. We were meant to have an interval, but the cast carried on regardless. I was a little surprised as this, but I was glad of it. It meant that the pace of the show was great and as most of our audience for the matinee were press-ganged students from other courses, it meant that we managed to retain them for the entirety of the play. There was some confusions as we changed actresses, but the jokes got laughs and the fate of Firs garnered a sympathetic "Ahhhh".
After the first show, I felt I could relax and the evening show was another improvement. There were still line jumps, but they were fewer and farther between. The cast remembered to allow for an interval. There was no need for any prompting. There were still laugh, but they fell in different places. The audience was largely made up of parents and Pishchik's lines about his mortgage got laughs that they hadn't in the afternoon. Many of the students that watched the first show stayed for the second as well, which is a favourable review in itself.
Both shows were great and I'm enormously proud of the cast for all the hard work they've put into the show, but it's a shame that they left it to the last moment to put in the effort.
Photograph used by kind permission of Tom Holmes at http://www.jimmylemon.co.uk
We spent the fourth week hotseating characters, which proved a very fruitful exercise and proved to me that there was a good level of understanding among the cast. We then ran the whole play, followed by the first half again. Costumes were coming together and I had various meetings about lighting, music and sound.
Our fifth week was spent running the play in two halves and then in full on the Friday. Lines were still not being learnt and blocking was being forgotten.
Week six saw a crisis of confidence among the cast and so we slowed down. Working our way through the play at a pace more akin to week three. There was some really nice insight from the cast and stronger characters were definitely developing. There were still lines unlearned and if this continued there would be some harsh lessons learned as well.
This is week seven: our performance week. We had our get-in and technical rehearsal on Monday and we were supposed to have our dress rehearsal, but the cast were not ready. Many were not off-book and very few seemed bothered that the show was tomorrow. A stern talking-to was in order and the effect was obvious on the second run of the day. Things were heading in the right direction, but I was worried it would be too little, too late. I delayed the dress rehearsal from the previous Friday, to Monday and then again to the day of the show, which was hardly ideal. The dress rehearsal was a qualified shambles. Many of the scenes were fine but the transitions between them were appalling, cast members wandered off missing whole scenes and I was forced to prompt several times.
I was very anxious as the matinee performance began. Things went wrong, but the cast carried on and crucially carried on in character. They helped each other through and they adapted to the constantly-changing circumstances. The lines jumped around Act One and I was leafing through my script to try to find where they were in case I needed to prompt again. I would find a line that had just been delivered and then the next would jump back or forward two or three pages. Acts Two and Three were more straight-forward. Act Four had its line jumps, but they all went in the same direction and merely got us to the end a little quicker. I was required to prompt twice, which was unfortunate, but obviously a vast improvement over the last few runs. Having an audience forced the cast to commit to decisions, some we had discussed and some that we hadn't. The character moments that were created during the performance were fantastic. We were meant to have an interval, but the cast carried on regardless. I was a little surprised as this, but I was glad of it. It meant that the pace of the show was great and as most of our audience for the matinee were press-ganged students from other courses, it meant that we managed to retain them for the entirety of the play. There was some confusions as we changed actresses, but the jokes got laughs and the fate of Firs garnered a sympathetic "Ahhhh".
After the first show, I felt I could relax and the evening show was another improvement. There were still line jumps, but they were fewer and farther between. The cast remembered to allow for an interval. There was no need for any prompting. There were still laugh, but they fell in different places. The audience was largely made up of parents and Pishchik's lines about his mortgage got laughs that they hadn't in the afternoon. Many of the students that watched the first show stayed for the second as well, which is a favourable review in itself.
Both shows were great and I'm enormously proud of the cast for all the hard work they've put into the show, but it's a shame that they left it to the last moment to put in the effort.
Photograph used by kind permission of Tom Holmes at http://www.jimmylemon.co.uk
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Devising The Undiscovered
The second years are busy devising their own show. I've tagged this post as directing, but I'm really more of a facilitator for their ideas. The group have come up with some fantastic ideas, but convincing them that they are ideas worth keeping is the hardest part of the job so far.
The first week we talked through the initial ideas that the group had and improvised around them. We got into a routine of working on things in smaller groups, showing scenes to the rest of the group and making obervations of how they could be improved.
Many of the cast came prepared for the second week with ideas, scripts and we had a great flurry of activity. A narrative had begun to present itself which was fantastic, but there was a danger that it would limit the creativity of the group.
For the third week I split the cast up into pairs and smaller groups, none of whom would normally work together. This proved fruitful and the scenes that cam out of these improvisations are some of the most interesting. The narrative developed into a running order and the cast were getting very good at deciding what best fitted where and what their characters ought to know and when.
The fourth week was curtailed by losing the Bank Holiday Monday and getting the cast back into a working frame of mind. They are filming some elements today. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
I haven't quite been sworn to secrecy, but I'm loathe to reveal too much about someone else's story. Especially while things could still change. The cast have written and improvised various scenes. There is a possibility that they are incorporating songs and dance routines.
The cast have come up with a name for their play...The Undiscovered. I like it. It doesn't reveal too much, but it does give the audience a flavour of what to expect. I thought that naming the play would be more of a problem, but they all agreed quite readily.
The first week we talked through the initial ideas that the group had and improvised around them. We got into a routine of working on things in smaller groups, showing scenes to the rest of the group and making obervations of how they could be improved.
Many of the cast came prepared for the second week with ideas, scripts and we had a great flurry of activity. A narrative had begun to present itself which was fantastic, but there was a danger that it would limit the creativity of the group.
For the third week I split the cast up into pairs and smaller groups, none of whom would normally work together. This proved fruitful and the scenes that cam out of these improvisations are some of the most interesting. The narrative developed into a running order and the cast were getting very good at deciding what best fitted where and what their characters ought to know and when.
The fourth week was curtailed by losing the Bank Holiday Monday and getting the cast back into a working frame of mind. They are filming some elements today. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
I haven't quite been sworn to secrecy, but I'm loathe to reveal too much about someone else's story. Especially while things could still change. The cast have written and improvised various scenes. There is a possibility that they are incorporating songs and dance routines.
The cast have come up with a name for their play...The Undiscovered. I like it. It doesn't reveal too much, but it does give the audience a flavour of what to expect. I thought that naming the play would be more of a problem, but they all agreed quite readily.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Blocking The Cherry Orchard
Rehearsals for The Cherry Orchard are now well under way.
I held auditions in the first week of term. When casting the play, I decided to split the parts of Luba and Varya between two actresses and Pishchik is being played by a girl. The cast members in question all seem happy with this. We had a cast read-through to get everyone on the same page.
During the second week we worked our way through and blocked Acts One, Two and part of Three.
We picked up where we left off in the third week and blocked the rest of the play. We lost one rehearsal as our theatre became the polling station for the local elections.
Understandably, many of the cast have struggled with some of the Russian names, but as we have worked on the text that doesn't seem to be as much of a problem any more. We've also had some very interesting discussions about the historical and social context of the play, how the characters in the play might fit into that society and the life of Anton Chekhov.
The cast need to learn their lines. I've heard many bold claims from people about finding it easy to learn lines or having already learnt Act One or the first half of the play. I suppose I'll find out next week...
I held auditions in the first week of term. When casting the play, I decided to split the parts of Luba and Varya between two actresses and Pishchik is being played by a girl. The cast members in question all seem happy with this. We had a cast read-through to get everyone on the same page.
During the second week we worked our way through and blocked Acts One, Two and part of Three.
We picked up where we left off in the third week and blocked the rest of the play. We lost one rehearsal as our theatre became the polling station for the local elections.
Understandably, many of the cast have struggled with some of the Russian names, but as we have worked on the text that doesn't seem to be as much of a problem any more. We've also had some very interesting discussions about the historical and social context of the play, how the characters in the play might fit into that society and the life of Anton Chekhov.
The cast need to learn their lines. I've heard many bold claims from people about finding it easy to learn lines or having already learnt Act One or the first half of the play. I suppose I'll find out next week...
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
D Is For...Directing
The fourth post for the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, D Is For... Directing:
I recently accepted a job working for a term at a local college of further education on their BTEC Performing Arts course and will be directing two shows. I have directed bits and pieces in the past: Caryl Churchill's Far Away whilst at university, a piece that I wrote called Four Doors Down during the Bike Shed Festival, a version of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter with the second year students at this very college and I have assisted other people with several productions over the years.
The second year class will be devising their own theatre piece, while the first year class will be performing a play text.
This is the first time that I have had to choose a play for others to perform in this manner. It wasn't a blank slate, it never is, but having to choose a play that serves a cast of sixteen, can possibly incorporate songs, but isn't a musical and is suitable for students. After reading several plays, I would get so far in to a play I liked and then face a wall of impenetrable Russian, Jacobean verse or swearing that proved unsuitable for the age group.
After much deliberation I have decided that the first years will be performing The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.
I'll keep you posted on our progress...
The second year class will be devising their own theatre piece, while the first year class will be performing a play text.
This is the first time that I have had to choose a play for others to perform in this manner. It wasn't a blank slate, it never is, but having to choose a play that serves a cast of sixteen, can possibly incorporate songs, but isn't a musical and is suitable for students. After reading several plays, I would get so far in to a play I liked and then face a wall of impenetrable Russian, Jacobean verse or swearing that proved unsuitable for the age group.
After much deliberation I have decided that the first years will be performing The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.
I'll keep you posted on our progress...
Monday, 8 August 2011
Far Away
As part of the Directing module at university we were required to direct a section from a play from various different options. I chose the first scene of Caryl Churchill's Far Away.
The scene sees young Joan enter and tells her Aunt Harper that she is returning after climbing out of her window to investigate a scream that she heard. Joan tells Harper that she has just witnessed her uncle, Harper's husband, loading people, including bloodied children, into the back of a lorry. Harper tries quell Joan's fears and claims they are on the right side, tells her that he is taking them to a safer place and that they are making the world a better place, but that she can never tell anyone about what she saw because it would put all their lives in danger.
I cast Zoe Alyssa Cooper as young Joan and Sophie Glasscock as Harper. In doing so I found myself with two great actresses with such different timetables that it was almost impossible to get them in the same room at the same time.
We persevered and despite the difficulties I remember rehearsals being a lot of fun and passing by without a problem. As I was being observed on my ability to work with actors this lack of event wasn't particularly helpful. So I found myself employing exercises that I knew weren't going to very useful because it meant that I wasn't seen to be simply sticking doggedly to my first idea. I tended to try out my first idea second and then stick doggedly to that instead.
I decided upon a very stark design for set and props. The house I was living in at the time had a massive red rug, which I borrowed for Harper's home. I accessorised everything with this rug. I painted a wooden chair and a lampshade, but also seemed to manage to get paint everywhere else as well. My jeans, the sink in the gents toilet and a patch of floor. No one ever mentioned it and so neither did I.
When it came to the actual performance I didn't know what to do with myself and sort of dithered until the lights went down. During the scene I watched intently, but couldn't quite relax. The girls were fantastic and really did me proud.
Zoe made playing an eight year old girl who might have witnessed a massacre seem effortless, and the same scene was staged by couple of other directors on the same evening and her portrayal was clearly the one that the audience loved and the other Joans in the other Far Aways were on a bit of a hiding to nothing.
I would love to have the opportunity to direct the full play and I know exactly what I would do with it.
The scene sees young Joan enter and tells her Aunt Harper that she is returning after climbing out of her window to investigate a scream that she heard. Joan tells Harper that she has just witnessed her uncle, Harper's husband, loading people, including bloodied children, into the back of a lorry. Harper tries quell Joan's fears and claims they are on the right side, tells her that he is taking them to a safer place and that they are making the world a better place, but that she can never tell anyone about what she saw because it would put all their lives in danger.
I cast Zoe Alyssa Cooper as young Joan and Sophie Glasscock as Harper. In doing so I found myself with two great actresses with such different timetables that it was almost impossible to get them in the same room at the same time.
We persevered and despite the difficulties I remember rehearsals being a lot of fun and passing by without a problem. As I was being observed on my ability to work with actors this lack of event wasn't particularly helpful. So I found myself employing exercises that I knew weren't going to very useful because it meant that I wasn't seen to be simply sticking doggedly to my first idea. I tended to try out my first idea second and then stick doggedly to that instead.
I decided upon a very stark design for set and props. The house I was living in at the time had a massive red rug, which I borrowed for Harper's home. I accessorised everything with this rug. I painted a wooden chair and a lampshade, but also seemed to manage to get paint everywhere else as well. My jeans, the sink in the gents toilet and a patch of floor. No one ever mentioned it and so neither did I.
When it came to the actual performance I didn't know what to do with myself and sort of dithered until the lights went down. During the scene I watched intently, but couldn't quite relax. The girls were fantastic and really did me proud.
Zoe made playing an eight year old girl who might have witnessed a massacre seem effortless, and the same scene was staged by couple of other directors on the same evening and her portrayal was clearly the one that the audience loved and the other Joans in the other Far Aways were on a bit of a hiding to nothing.
I would love to have the opportunity to direct the full play and I know exactly what I would do with it.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Festival Second
One down, three to go. The first show went well and the films were well received, I'll post links to the ones that are available on the internet when I get a chance.
More importantly, onward and onward, the second of the Behind The Bike Shed summer festival shows is tonight at the Courtyard Theatre at 7.30. Entry is £6, tickets available on the door or here.
The show is followed by a some scenes featuring work by Marc Barnes, Robert Sladden, me and others. I wrote and directed one and I'm in another.
More importantly, onward and onward, the second of the Behind The Bike Shed summer festival shows is tonight at the Courtyard Theatre at 7.30. Entry is £6, tickets available on the door or here.
The show is followed by a some scenes featuring work by Marc Barnes, Robert Sladden, me and others. I wrote and directed one and I'm in another.
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